🎙️ The Fashion Stitch -- On Fabrics, Facts and Feelings

Episode 4: Will Data and Transparency Reshape What Clothes We Buy?

Why do we really buy what we buy --- and could transparency change
that?\
From emotions and status to sustainability and data, this episode
explores how our shopping habits are shaped by both feeling and fact.

💡 Beyond the problems, we spotlight solutions:

• The psychology of fashion consumption --- and how awareness can bridge the
  knowledge--action gap\


• How the EU Digital Product Passport could make fashion more circular
  and traceable\


• OEKO-TEX® MADE IN GREEN -- linking verified data with social and
  environmental responsibility\


• EU textile regulations pushing brands toward greater accountability\


• Turning transparency into true empowerment, not information overload

👥 Featuring

• Prof. Renate Stauss -- The American University of Paris, on
  desire, price, decoration, and social status as drivers of fashion
  consumption --- and why sustainability often struggles against
  emotional appeal.\


• Carolin Franitza -- Stakeholder Manager at OEKO-TEX®, on the
  EU Digital Product Passport, MADE IN GREEN certification, and
  ensuring verified, trustworthy data.

💬 Street voices:\
Berlin shoppers on transparency, price, and whether they'd scan a QR
code before buying

🔑 Topics we cover

• Why emotions, desire, and status drive fashion consumption\


• What "transparency" really means --- and what it can't fix\


• How the Rana Plaza tragedy shaped calls for accountability\


• Opportunities and limits of digital product passports\


• Greenwashing, trust, and the importance of verified data\


• Why real change needs both facts and feelings

📌 Sources and further reading

• The European Textile
  Regulation\


• EU Digital Product
  Passport\


• Hot or Cool Institute -- Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable: Resizing
  Fashion for a Fair Consumption Space
  (2022)\


• Simon-Kucher -- Nachhaltige Mode: Nur jeder Dritte akzeptiert
  Aufpreis (2024) (in
  German)\


• Kate Fletcher -- Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion
  (2016)\


• Fashion Revolution -- Fashion Transparency
  Index


• The Digital Multilogue on Fashion
  Education